Player grades: Rock bottom as subservient Oilers kneel before Kings

Oilers 0, Kings 4

This was not a proud night for fans of the Edmonton Oilers.

Their club was allegedly desperate to get back in the playoff race after finally ending a six-game losing streak in Arizona on Wednesday. Desperately needing to put some wins together, they failed to show up in their personal Little House of Horrors, Staples Center, and meekly rolled over 4-0 to the Los Angeles Kings. That would be the last-place overall Los Angeles Kings, or at least they were before picking up two easy points against a vastly inferior Edmonton team. One of the very worst teams in the NHL on their home ice, the Kings have twice beaten the Oilers now by a combined 9 goals to 2. Against the rest of the league they have been outscored by 22 goals in their own barn, losing 13 of 21 games.

But for the Oilers it might as well be the Montreal Forum circa 1977. In their last 15 visits to Tinseltown dating back to 2012, they’ve posted a 1-13-1 record, scoring a measly 27 goals and allowing a whopping 63. That’s … not good.

This one was over early as the Kings pumped home three goals in the first 14 minutes to drive Mikko Koskinen to the bench, then pretty much coasted the rest of the way with a strong checking effort against an Oilers club that was absolutely impotent. Despite chasing the score pretty much all night, the visitors managed just 16 shots on net, half of that paltry total by defencemen! Only 4 forwards mustered even one shot. The Oilers generated just 4 Grade A scoring chances on the night, with 3 of them coming on the powerplay and 1 lonely chance in 48 minutes of even strength hockey. The Kings had just 9 GASC, but they also had a multi-goal lead for most of the night.

Worse still, the Oilers had next to nothing in the way of physical pushback even after Drew Doughty elbowed Connor McDavid right in the mush early in the game and was seen openly laughing on the Kings’ bench about it. Reaction? None, not then, not later. A few petulant moments against other players after the whistle but nothing in the way of taking it to them while the puck was in play. Never happened.

I’d rather watch this nail fungus commercial on repeat, than the third period.

Post-game podcast

It’s hard to imagine Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli isn’t on his last legs with the team after that stinker loss to the Los Angeles Kings, especially combined with the Oil’s failing playoff chances based on an inadequate roster. David Staples and Bruce McCurdy of The Cult of Hockey dig in.

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Player grades

GM Peter Chiarelli, 1. We don’t usually comment on the men wearing suits in our player grades, but let’s make an exception. Peter Chiarelli’s crew reached the halfway point of what’s shaping up as another lost season, and “The Plan” is nowhere in evidence. The core players who were here when he arrived have been carrying way, WAY more than their share of the load while his supporting cast has proven incapable of getting the job done. Of the twelve forwards who dressed on Saturday, the eight acquired by Chiarelli combined for ZERO shots. Meanwhile, his efforts to fill the holes on defence are coming up snake eyes. Consider: since Andrej Sekera went down in August, the Oilers have brought in Jakub Jerabek (since traded), Jason Garrison (since traded), Chris Wideman (since traded) and most recent band-aids Alexander Petrovic (-3 vs. the Kings) and Brandon Manning (-2). There have been some mostly minor successes along the way, but none of them were in evidence on Saturday night.

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#5 Kevin Gravel, 4. The only Oiler defender who managed to break even on the night, he was spared a minus of his own when Ken Hitchcock successfully challenged an apparent 5-0 goal with a minute to play for offside, which it was, microscopically. The only battle the Oilers won all night.

#6 Adam Larsson, 5. Among the few competitive Oilers, he made some excellent stops at and inside his own blueline, and tried to activate offensively even as not much came of it. Got scorched on the 4-0 goal when he tried to stand up the rush at centre ice and failed.

#8 Ty Rattie, 3. Played 11 minutes at evens during which the Oilers mustered 2 shots. Did win a couple of board battles.

#15 Alexander Petrovic, 2. Brought in to settle things down behind the blueline, he was -3 in the first period and is now -5 in 3 GP as an Oiler and -13 overall. Did bring some physicality with 5 hits but nothing memorable other than the brutal sequence on the 2-0 goal where he mishandled the puck, then got walked by the goal scorer. Oilers got outshot 6-0 and outscored 3-0 during his 12+ minutes.

#16 Jujhar Khaira, 3. A couple of OK moments offensively, but he was lit up for 2 goals against on the counter attack. 1 (semi-dangerous) shot. 3/9=33% on the dot.

#19 Mikko Koskinen, 2. Didn’t have a lot of help but didn’t make any saves either. For the second time in 10 days he found himself on the bench within a period, the game already hopelessly lost. 8 shots, 5 saves, .625 save percentage.

#22 Tobias Rieder, 2. Unnoticeable. Was on the ice for 10 minutes and the entire Oilers team didn’t manage a shot. On his best chance, he completely whiffed on a promising pass from Chiasson.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 5. Singled out by Ken Hitchcock as the “only” Oiler who competed, I thought that was a trifle harsh on a couple of guys like Larsson and McDavid but not too far off. 6 shot attempts, 3 on goal. He was the last man back on Anze Kopitar’s 300th career goal that made it 4-0 but basically took himself out of the play.

#26 Brandon Manning, 2. Another of the veteran d-men brought in to shore up the back end, he got walked by Tyler Toffoli on his first shift (Koskinen the save that time). He followed up with a brutal turnover just inside his own blueline leading directly to the 2-0 goal, then made a bad decision to pinch with all three of his forwards deep in the zone, failed to contain the puck, and yielded a 160-foot 2-on-1 that basically ended things at 3-0. Oilers got outshot 6-1 and outscored 2-0 during his 12 minutes, while he was personally culpable on 4 Grade A scoring chances against.

#27 Milan Lucic, 2. Had 0 shot attempts, and his team mustered just 1 shot during his 11 minutes (4 against , including a goal). Has 1 shot in his last 5 games and hasn’t had a decent scoring chance for what seems like a month. In a game where Doughty took liberties with McDavid early, Lucic took a few shots behind the play at guys like Oscar Fantenberg, Austin Wagner, Sean Walker and Brendan Leipsic, he didn’t so much as reintroduce himself to former teammates like Doughty, Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter, let alone Jonathan Quick. Got an early shower when he took 14 minutes in penalties against little Brendan Leipsic, who is 5 inches shorter and over 50 pounds lighter than him. Slashing, cross-checking, misconduct. That’ll show ’em.

#28 Kyle Brodziak, 3. Had 0 shot attempts and about that much impact on the game. 2/7=29% in the faceoff circle.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 4. Had 6 shot attempts and at least attempted to drive play north, even as he struggled to get any clean looks. 6/13=46% on the dot.

#33 Cam Talbot, 5. Decent job locking the barn door but the horse was romping down the freeway by then. Lost his nearside post on the 4-0 goal, but made a couple of good stops. 15 shots, 14 saves, .933 save percentage.

#39 Alex Chiasson, 3. Returned to the line-up but was unable to generate a single shot attempt. 2 hits and a little bit of feistiness in the very late going after Jeff Carter drilled McDavid with a clean hit.

#44 Zack Kassian, 2. The visitors desperately needed the Kassian who played so well in Arizona, laying on the body, shaking pucks loose on the forecheck, and working the cycle. But that player was nowhere in evidence. Put zero forechecking or physical pressure on Doughty, who ran the Oilers’ show yet again from the back end. 0 shot attempts, 2 hits.

#82 Caleb Jones, 3. Got walked by Kyle Clifford of all people on the fourth minute goal that started a long night of pain for the Oilers. (Second time this week a guy came out of the press box to score the game winner against the Oil.) Played 23 minutes overall and generally minded his P’s and Q’s but had nothing happening offensively.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 3. Is not making much happen on a second line that resembles a helicopter (no wings), and which tonight mustered 0 shots on goal during Nuge’s 11 minutes at evens. Had a couple of hits and held his own on the dot with a team best 7/13=54%. Was involved in 3 scoring chances, all on the powerplay. But was among the defensive culprits on the last Kings’ goal.

#97 Connor McDavid, 4. Took an elbow from Doughty in the chops early, and was seen working his jaw on the bench. His effort was solid, and his 4 shots on goal matched the entire rest of the forward corps. But generated zero scoring chances at evens, a rare off night in 5v5 play. Had a couple of decent looks on the PP and rattled Quick’s cage with one rocket. But was guilty of a flyby on the second Kings tally. 3/8=38% in the circle and 23 minutes of ice time that will eat into his energy reserve tomorrow.

#98 Jesse Puljujarvi, 2. Yet another forward who didn’t muster a shot or even an attempt. 1 hit, and major coverage issues on the last two LA tallies.

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